"If you are satisfied that you have heard enough to arrive at a true verdict-and I cannot myself see that any further evidence would greatly clarify the subject-then so be it. Would you like to hear counsel for the defence?"
"No, my lord, thank you. We have reached our verdict already."
"In that case, any summing-up by me would be markedly redundant. Do you want to retire?"
"No, my lord. We are unanimous."
23
"We had better wait until the crowd thins out," Robert said. "Then they'll let us out the back way."
He was wondering why Marion looked so grave; so unrejoicing. Almost as if she were suffering from shock. Had the strain been as bad as all that?
As if aware of his puzzlement, she said: "That woman. That poor woman. I can't think of anything else."
"Who?" Robert said, stupidly.
"The girl's mother. Can you imagine anything more frightful? To have lost the roof over one's head is bad— Oh, yes, Robert my dear, you don't have to tell us—" She held out a late edition of the Larborough Times with a Stop Press paragraph reading: THE FRANCHISE, HOUSE MADE FAMOUS BY MILFORD ABDUCTION CASE, BURNT TO THE GROUND LAST NIGHT. "Yesterday that would have seemed to me an enormous tragedy. But compared with that woman's calvary it seems an incident. What can be more shattering than to find that the person you have lived with and loved all those years not only doesn't exist but has never existed? That the person you have so much loved not only doesn't love you but doesn't care two hoots about you and never did? What is there left for someone like that? She can never again take a step on to green grass without wondering if it is bog."